Strategic thinking in chess as a tool for developing students' analytical abilities

Abstract

The modern educational paradigm requires innovative mechanisms for the development of critical thinking and analytical abilities of students in conditions of increasing information load. The present study is devoted to the study of the influence of strategic thinking in chess on the formation of analytical competencies among students of higher educational institutions. The aim of the work was to identify correlational and causal links between systematic chess practice and the development of students' multicomponent analytical abilities. The research methodology was based on a pedagogical experiment involving 237 students of various fields of study (technical, natural science, socio-economic, humanitarian), divided into experimental (n=118) and control (n=119) groups. During the academic year 2022-2023, the experimental group participated in an integrated chess training program that included theoretical and practical components. The assessment of analytical abilities was carried out through a set of validated psychometric tools and an analysis of academic performance. The results of the study demonstrate a statistically significant increase in analytical thinking in the experimental group: improved planning functions (by 27.3%), work with multifactorial models (by 31.5%), pattern recognition (by 26.4%). Strong correlations were found between the intensity of chess practice and the integrative indicator of analytical abilities (r=0.75, p<0.01), and a statistically significant increase in academic performance in disciplines requiring an analytical approach was recorded. The effectiveness of the developed method of integrating chess education into the educational process of the university is empirically substantiated, taking into account differences in the initial level of cognitive abilities and chess qualifications of students.